Chusetts



W. M. STEVENSON.

WOVEN FABRIC.

APPUCATION FILED JUNE 9. 1917.

1,325,337. Patented Dec. 16,1919.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFEQE.

WILLIAM M. STEVENSON, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOB, TO BOZARTRUG COMPANY, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSA-CHUSE'ITS.

woven FABRIC.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed June 9, 1917. Serial No. 173,783.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM M. STEVEN- soN, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing in Springfield, Massachusetts, have invented certainImprovements in Woven Fabrics, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention consists of certain improve ments in the manufacture ofwoven fabrics, especially carpets and rugs, and hereinafter. forconvenience, referred to as a rug, and has as its purpose, theproduction of a multicolor rug in such a way that although only two setsof warp threads are used in the weaving of the rug the finished articlewill show more than two, say five, different colors on its face and willpresent the appearance of having been woven with five sets of warpthreads. A rug produced in accordance with my invention, while equal inappearance to a' much higher priced rug, may be sold for a relativelysmall sum owing to the greatly reduced cost of manufacturing and theless amount of material required.

My invention is especially adapted for use in connection with theso-called fiber rugs in the weavin of which two sets of warp threads areemployed, one set c0nsisting of wool or cotton fiber and the other setconsisting of twisted paper strands. Such a rug usually shows, on itsface, a figure or design, formed by the fiber warps, and displayedagainst a background of paper warps. The conventional practice is tohave the fiber warps of a darker color than the paper warps so that therug presents a dark figure on a' light background. My invention consistsin applying color or colors to a portion of or all of the backgroundformed by the paper warps with the result that the rug will, instead ofbeing two-toned, present a design possessed of any desired number ofdifferent colors.

In the accompanying drawing, which shows one end of a rug adapted to befinished in accordance with my invention, I have illustrated aconventional design and border by means of cross lines on a plainbackground. For sake of example, say that the cross lines represent adesign formed of brown fiber warps and the plain background representslight tan paper warps. In finishing this rug according to my process, Iwill apply color or colors to any desired portion of the background. Forinstance, I desire to add to the brown and tan effect, three otherscolors, say, red, blue and green. These three colors I will apply, asshown on the drawing, to such portions of the background as are marked,respectively, B, B and G. The finished rug will then display five colorsand, unless very closely examined, will present the appearance of havingbeen woven with five differently colored sets of warp threads.

The application of color to the background is readily effected as thepaper warps used in this type of rug are very nearly as absorptive asblotting paper. If oil colors are used, they will be permanent, and therug may be subjected to hard usage and even washed. without deleteriousefiect upon the colors.

The colors may be applied by hand, with an ordinary paint brush, but themethod I prefer is to make use of a shield of heavy cardboard or lightsheet metal, this shield having in it a perforation or series ofperforations corresponding in size and contour with that portion of thebackground that it is desired to color. This shield is laid over therug, exposing that portion of the background while covering theremaining surface and the color is then applied by means of an airbrush. This method insures an even distribution of color and willproduce better results should it be used by an unskilled workman.

It will be noted that the pattern of the rug is wholly the result of theweaving operation, the design or pattern of the finished rug. except asto the coloring, being precisely the same as in the rug as it left theloom, the subsequently applied color being only to such parts of the rugas have already been shaped by weaving, that is to say, each of theunshaded portions of the design shown in the drawing is formed bythreads which come from the back of the fabric to the face and in allother portions are buried under the shaded threads, the latter in turnbeing buried under the unshaded threads where the latter appear upon thesurface.

A rug made in accordance with my invention will therefore look exactlylike a rug woven with as many sets of threads as there are colors in thepattern, and in this respect will be wholly distinct from one in whichthe design or pattern is produced by printing it upon the face of afabric woven uniformly throughout, for in the latter there Patented Dec.16, 1919.

is no change of threads from one face of the fabric to the other wherethe pattern changes. My invention is equally applicable to the weavingof rugs in which the pattern or design is formed by the weft threadsinstead of by the warp threads.

I claim:

1. The process herein described of pro ducing amulti-colored fabric,said process consisting in first so weaving a fabric with light and darkthreads as to form a pattern or design and then applying color to partsof the design formed by the light threads so as to produce the effect ofa fabric woven with more than two differently colored sets of threads.

2. The within described fabric having light and dark threads interwovento produce a pattern or design parts of the light threads constitutingelements of said pattern or design being dyed or colored todifferentiate them from other parts thereof.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

WVILLIAM M. STEVENSON.

